So, just behold the unsurprising news about Microsoft being unwelcome at this latest event. More disturbing, however, is Novell’s role as Microsoft excuse for inviting itself. We saw this before and surely we’ll be seeing more of it in the future.

Microsoft Faces Skeptics at Open Source Conference

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Representatives of both companies provided a status report of their collaboration at the annual Linux/Open Source on Wall Street conference held in New York this week. Microsoft says it has sold more than 100,000 SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) licenses to about 60 large enterprise customers, among them Credit Suisse, HSBC, Synovus Financial Corp. and Wal-Mart.

Let us get something straight. When someone who takes (or “steals”, to use Microsoft’s own terminology) revenue from Linux, to which it contributed absolutely nothing (unless technical sabotage, FUD and intimidation count as “contributions”), can any of those so-called ‘skeptics’ be blamed at all? Just wait until anonymous folks come around to stick labels like "zealots" or "haters". It’s easy to discredit using blacklists.

“Watch carefully how Novell’s deal with Microsoft serves as a ticket for Microsoft to enter every Linux and open source conference.”Watch carefully how Novell’s deal with Microsoft serves as a ticket for Microsoft to enter every Linux and open source conference. Novell is praising Microsoft and encouraging people to approach Microsoft with open arms.

Microsoft recently sponsored the SugarCRM conference as well. One can only imagine what they quietly say or whisper to those developers and corporate clients about Linux (“Server 2008 is a superset of Linux”, “GPLv3 is scary”, “Linux patent violation claims are not bogus”, etc.) and how they channel people in Novell’s direction in order for software patent ‘tax’ to be extracted from SLED/SLES.

Intel’s investment in SpikeSource goes beyond financial ties, however. It has also picked the company to provide its new software testing and validation service, announced alongside the new 2nd generation Classmate PC.

The Novell-led Bandit project has announced a solution to help address one of the major business challenges faced by hotel and hospitality enterprises – how to cost effectively connect disparate systems to streamline administration and comply with regulatory requirements. Using open source, the Bandit project has written a reference implementation based on Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) standards that will bridge various systems and platforms in an enterprise, including legacy systems, with commercially available identity management software.

Microsoft is under the false impression that ‘open source’ is Linux’s killer app and that just by making open source run in windows people will not move to Linux (Unfortunately, firefox running in windows has only aided migrations so far)

They are also under the misconception that they can actually make a FLOSS software target only one platform, the problem is that once you give a developer the source code and the license to do whatever he wants with it he will be able to port a program. Microsoft cannot make open source run in only one platform. Neither “free software” and “open source” allow a windows-only clause in their licenses.

I hope they keep trying though, it is better to see them spend resources in a fight they cannot win than seeing them use the resources on more deals, lobbying, etc.

One thing they can try, however, is to use proprietary hooks and APIs (think about Hyper-V and hypercalls in Xen for example). In the case of servers, there are also connections to proprietary parts of the stacks, e.g. SQL Server, SharePoint, etc. So while I agree with what you say, it can get a little more complicated than this.

Thanks for the into Roy and Victor although I am typing this on Windows I am considering changing to Linux on the Desktop and leaving Windows for the odd game or two thats better on the PC than the Xbox…

It will get easier over time. Microsoft is well aware of the fact that software will inevitably go Web-based (not necessarily in the most conventional of ways because of Gears, Prism, even WPF, which is why Microsoft introduced .NET).

That user experience is starting to evolve beyond today’s browsing experience. The most interesting topic discussed in our meeting was just how compelling Mozilla’s Firefox will increasingly be as the platform for much that happens on the Web. Forget Facebook, MySpace, the iPhone, and other so-called platforms. Firefox could well prove to be the most disruptive Web platform on the market. Here’s why.

Adobe Systems is working to deliver all of its software via the Web as a service rather than a packaged product, but the transition to earn money from subscriptions or advertising could take a decade…

That’s why Microsoft is so determined to harm Google and Adobe, whose CEO has departed. Microsoft’s number one fear remains GNU/Linux (by its own admission) and the GPL. Not Sun or IBM. Not even Apple.

The lunacy of the EPO with its patent maximalism will likely go unchecked (and uncorrected) if Battistelli gets his way and turns the EPO into another SIPO (Croatian in the human rights sense and Chinese in the quality sense)

Another long installment in a multi-part series about UPC at times of post-truth Battistelli-led EPO, which pays the media to repeat the lies and pretend that the UPC is inevitable so as to compel politicians to welcome it regardless of desirability and practicability

Implementing yet more of his terrible ideas and so-called 'reforms', Battistelli seems to be racing to the bottom of everything (patent quality, staff experience, labour rights, working conditions, access to justice etc.)

"Good for trolls" is a good way to sum up the Unitary Patent, which would give litigators plenty of business (defendants and plaintiffs, plus commissions on high claims of damages) if it ever became a reality

Microsoft's continued fascination with and participation in the effort to undermine Alice so as to make software patents, which the company uses to blackmail GNU/Linux vendors, widely acceptable and applicable again